The lovely view from the car!
Our drive up to Palm Beach is an ill timed one at best. Ill timed because of several reasons. It’s a Friday night and Queen Viv is making her way from Double Bay through to Potts Point where she’ll pick up Miss America and then drive to our place. What’s stopping her is the 4 accidents and/or breakdowns along the way which ensure that they both arrive at our doorstep after 2 hours of strenuous inch-by-inch kerb crawling traffic. Ill timed because it is absolutely pouring down with rain and has been doing so all day despite the calendar indicating that it is Summer. Ill timed because we are now almost an hour late for our dinner reservation at a place that offers a spectacular view, yet we cannot see a trace of it because it is so late and the sheets of rain obscuring our view of anything in front of us.
Ahh nice couches and a fireplace
Palm Beach is one of those far flung Northern Beaches retreats, 41km from the CBD where wealthy folk and celebrities own houses (think the Hamptons of Sydney). For fans of the Australian soap, it’s also where the outdoor scenes are filmed for Home & Away. The neighbourhood liquor store advertises “Free Delivery” for Champagne orders and there’s a general sense of money and laid back lifestyle. Set at Latitude 33 degrees 35′29 S Longitude 151degrees 19′ 26E, Dunes is set inside Governor Phillip Park and you can get there either by seaplane, bus or car. The drive by car there is about an hour from the lower North Shore and by the time we arrive and find the entrance we fall upon it, hungry and tired. It reminds me of overseas resorts, the sea scent pervading the air and even though it’s raining, there’s the ever present humidity. The last time we were out here was for that fantastic weekend staying at the Barrenjoey Lighthouse.
We’re shown to our table in the restaurant. It’s comfortably decorated in a beach house style with nice big brown leather lounges next to a fireplace and well spaced tables all lit by candlelight and the whole room is lit with rows of tiny fairylights. We’re shown the menus. They differ quite a bit from the one on the website and we make our selections quickly. After all, we’re hungry and there are items that are just begging to be eaten like the Free Range Duck and the Tandoori spiced Rack of Lamb.
Blue Swimmer Crab Meat Salad with avocado, mango coulis and citrus dressing $18.50
My entree of the Crab arrives, a cucumber encircled mound of white crab meat. The crab meat isn’t bad and there is quite a bit of it in the dish. The avocado and ruby grapefruit pairs well with it, the very hard toast not so much as it’s extremely crunchy and dry compared to the delicate crab meat.
Sydney Rock Oysters with Campari granita 1/2 dozen $16.50
Queen Viv both have the Sydney Rock Oysters with Campari granita which they seem very satisfied with, Miss America holding up the shot glass of granita to his mouth to gather every drop. Curiously there is no bread given during the meal although there are plates for bread set on the table.
Free range duck with roasted parsnip, witlof with sour cherry dressing $29.50
Queen Viv’s duck is two large pieces of free range duck, cooked beautifully so that the skin is soft and crisp and the meat is tender inside. It’s a sizeable dish and one that she can’t finish, despite her best efforts. And she has no shortage of volunteers to help her finish it with all of us eagerly partaking in the mouthwatering duck.
Tandoori Spiced roasted rack of lamb on kumara mash, broccolini, raita and spring onion jus $30
My husband’s Lamb is perfection. I don’t believe I’ve ever had lamb this soft and pink inside and hubby knows that he has a winner. Queen Viv and Miss America, both New Zealanders who know their lamb are both enraptured by the softness of the meat too.
Bouillabaisse $32
My Boullaibaise is enormous and packed full of seafood. There’s scallops, fish, prawns and mussels as well as sauteed spinach and the mere sight of this vivid scarlet plate packed full of seafood has me excited. The prawns were a little overcooked but the fish and the scallops were deliciously soft.
Crusty herbed bread and mayonnaise accompanying the Bouillabaisse
Still for that amount of seafood I am not complaining and the accompanying buttered herbed toast and mayonnaise are delicious (although I would have loved another slice or two of this).
Blue Eyed Cod with sweet potato mash $29.50 (special of the day)
Miss America’s fish was good and decently sized but after the outstanding lamb and duck he can’t feel a comparatively like he should have chosen one of those. But due to the enormous serving sizes, we do a bit of impromptu plate swapping and he gets to try a bit of everything.
By now the torrential downpour shows no sign of abating so we rush to the car. Former road torture victims Queen Viv and Miss America, ensconced in the warmth and dryness of our car declare that it was well worth the drama.
Dunes at Palm Beach
1193 Barrenjoey Rd
Palm Beach 2108 NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9974 3332
Tue-Sun 8.30am-11.30am, Tue-Sun 11.30am-4pm
Wed-Sun 6.30pm-10pm
American Express not accepted (Visa card is accepted)
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15 Comments | Add your own
Never been up to Palm Beach…maybe something to do now while on holidays!
I’m sorry you had such a hard time getting over there! That’s always hard when you want to be elegant but you’re all frazzled from bad weather!
Oh dear, I’m glad to hear that the weather didn’t hold you back!
Food looks delicious!
wow , I love the couches and the fire place .. nice touch.
The Bouillabaisse looks awesome,a nice meal for a rainy day!
i love that christmas tree lamp…gorgeous. you’ve probably answered this a squillion times, nqn but what camera is used to take your photos? thank you
that lamb is begging for me to eat it…hmmm
At least you had a dazzling view of the delicious food yumm^^! You made the lamb and duck sound so magical I must tryyy!
Looove the Xmas tree lamp!
Think I’ll head there for lunch in the New Year. We’re always saying we’ll hire a car and go to the Northern beaches… now I’ve got a destination! Thanks!
Hi reemski-Great idea, it’s so nice in Summer!
Hi Blond Duck-Thanks, luckily it was worth it in the end
Hi Cappucino-It’d take more than torrential rains to stop us hehe
Hi Howard-I wanted to sit on the lounges and have a drink first but we were so late for our booking
Yes definitely rainy weather deserves a cavernous bowl of seafood!
Hi ella-Yes everyone loved that tree so we asked the owner where she got it from and she said overseas
We use a Canon EOS 450D 
Hi FFichiban-It was so good, the lamb was so soft. I don’t think I’ve ever had it that soft!
Hi Christie-Absolutely, make sure to pick a good day-unlike us
wait a second–does the cod actually have blue eyes? that’d be freaky, yet still far better than the filmy, glazed-over eye of a dead fish.
You describe Palm Beach very well. It really is the playground of rich Sydneysiders. Dotted with houses that sit empty most of the time, waiting for weekends and downtimes, to be filled. I was lucky enough to spend weekends and holidays there, long ago in another lifetime, and i always look back at that time with great affection!
Hi grace-Hehe I know how much you hate looking at whole fish! This was a fillet so you would have been safe and to be honest I usually don’t see whole blue eyed cod on the menu so I haven’t been able to stare into the eyes but I would assume that the eyes are indeed blue
Hi the projectivist-Thanks! Yep where the rich and famous go to holiday or for weekends. How very lucky! I would love to spend an extended time there *sigh*
were you there on the 12th? That was the night of my wedding right around the corner at Barrenjoey house, which you probably would have driven right past!
i highly recommend you go there for dinner too one night it has always been amazing every time and I had nothing but compliments on the food
PLUS the chef is slightly famous, being on Lifestyle food! (he is really nice too) See: Darren Simpson http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/chefs/darrensimpson/
Hi Sarah-Yes we were there that night! I hope you had a lovely wedding
Thanks for the recommendation. We love Palm beach so no doubt we’ll go back soon while the weather is gorgeous 
Hello,
My daughter is getting married next year possibly March do you cater for wedding receptions and if so could you send me some details.It is a small wedding of about 50 people or more as her fiance is from overseas and she will be having a wedding in his country as well,they were thinking of having a lunch.
Many Thanks
Dianne Meyer
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[...] Dexter, pillow menus, hotels to being bossy chatterboxes. So when she read about our visit to Dunes, we got to talking and she mentioned that she hadn’t been to Palm Beach before. It seemed a [...]
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